CI5472 Teaching Film, Television, and Media
Module 10: Studying the News ~ Television and Radio News
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There are also obvious differences in the nature and quality of news across different media: television, radio, print, and Web-based news. Television news emphasizes the visual, headline nature of events, which radio news, such as that available on National Public Radio can provide without having to be concerned about visual presentation. However, there is considerable variation in the nature of television news. Contrast the headline versions of the 24-hour cable-news broadcasts/Web pages of CNN, Fox, or MSNBC with the news as presented on the PBS Newshour in terms of differences in the depth of coverage and analysis. |
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Local television stations have made increasing use of their own
sites. |
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In a study of the news content on local TV station (Pitts, 2003)
found that these the web sites provides less information than do
the on-air stories. Only 36.5% of sites used video. Links to different
resources that would add to on-air news information were found on
43% of sampled sites. |
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Audience participation of television news. Students could also, using the methods described in Module 7 on media ethnography, analyze viewers’ responses to television news. They could examine the nature of their understanding or recall of the news content, as well as the critical stances they adopted in responding to the news. For example, in a study by Rod Doyle, he examined five viewers, ages 19 and 20, with similar levels of general knowledge, to recall stories from a news broadcast. They watched a broadcast of BBC1’s News at Ten, which lasted approximately 25 minutes. The news items that appeared on the program were as follows: |
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Each of the stories that were recalled by each of the five: |
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When asked to retell one of the stories on teachers’ working hours, the viewers varied in terms applying their own knowledge and opinions related to own interest and previous experience, particularly on the topic of education. They were also more likely to recall items that were interest to them, as well as the first lead-in items. |
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At the same time, it is often assumed the audiences are viewing of local television news to gain information. However, an alternative, more anthropological perspective suggests that audiences may also be using the viewing of news are part of a larger community ritual, in which the news has replaced the “town-crier” who’s job in the traditional community was do provide reassurance that “all is well.” Much of local news functions to celebrate local community events — anchors serve as MC’s and hosts for various civic causes and fund drives. All of this creates synthetic sense of “community,” with which viewers identify as members. Viewers then engage in a ritual-like viewing habit of participating in this synthetic community celebration at the end of the day. Because the news attempts to emphasize positive elements of the community, it may therefore avoid stories that serve to challenge or critiquing community beliefs and attitudes. |
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For further reading on viewer processing of television news information: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Graber, D. A. (2001). Processing politics: Learning from television in the Internet age. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. |
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On-line Television News | |
